Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho says Eric Dier’s call of nature midway through his side’s Carabao Cup win over Chelsea was a result of his superhuman effort.
The England international had to leave the pitch midway through the second half of the fourth-round tie, which Spurs won 5-4 on penalties after it ended 1-1 in 90 minutes, to go to the toilet.
Mourinho rushed into the dressing room to hurry him along as Spurs were playing the match with 10 men at the time and he came back out onto the pitch and then scored in the shootout.
Dier was selected 48 hours after playing in Sunday’s Premier League draw with Newcastle and Mourinho says the incident was a result of his extra workload.
“With Eric you can imagine what happened,” Mourinho said. “For him to leave the pitch it was easy to imagine what happened.
“I knew it, I was just pushing him to come back as soon as possible, because no more changes, and one player less is the consequence of something not human that he did, which was to play two matches completely dehydrated, tired, no energy in the muscles.
“Of course he is not playing Thursday because I would definitely kill him.”
Mourinho responded with humour when it was pointed out that rushing someone to go to the toilet can have the opposite effect.
He replied: “The problem is that was not a pee.”
Dier saw the funny side of it afterwards and said he had no choice but to leave the pitch.
“After playing on Sunday and then tonight, it wasn’t easy,” Dier told Sky Sports. “Maybe that was one of the reasons I had to run off the pitch in the second half. It wasn’t easy.
“He wasn’t happy but there was nothing I could do about it really. Nature was calling! There was a chance when I wasn’t on the pitch but thankfully they didn’t score.”
A long night looked on the cards as Spurs, playing without a recognised striker on the pitch, went behind in the 19th minute to Timo Werner’s first Chelsea goal.
But Mourinho’s men got better as the night went on and deservedly levelled in the 83rd minute through Erik Lamela, which sent it to penalties.
The first nine spot-kicks were successfully converted before Mason Mount missed the decisive one to send Spurs through to the quarter-final.
It gave Mourinho a first managerial win over Frank Lampard and the pair ended the night as friends, though it did get heated midway through the first half.
